#Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Russian 9M113 Konkurs anti-tank missiles, supplied by Moscow to Syria, are found by troops of the IDF's 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade in southern Lebanon, in a handout image published October 24, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces). Source: timesofisrael.com

P.S. It is interesting that the politically correct Western legacy media actually quite diligently avoids talking, writing, showing and exposing the negative role of the Russians in causing and maintaining conflicts in the Middle East.

It is enough to look a little closer at the weapons of terrorist organizations and Muslim extremist dictatorships and their sources in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq...Iran, and there are tons of Russian weapons...and tons of ammunition...everywhere you look...

In fact, Russia is the main den of all international terrorist organizations...

[minnesotafollower]

Russian Military Ships’ Recent Visit to Cuba 

On June 12th  four Russian warships, including a nuclear-powered submarine and a frigate capable of carrying hypersonic missiles, arrived in Cuba. Their arrival and visit were monitored by U.S. and Canadian ships.[1] Just hours later on June 12th a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine (the USS Helena) stopped in the waters near the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base at the eastern end of Cuba, and other…

[at-the-end-of-days]

Some American politicians are trying to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, based on Russia partnering with North Korea.

If this actually passes (unlikely because of the international ramifications) then US and Russian diplomacy will probably drop significantly.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?536508-1/sens-graham-blumenthal-designating-russia-state-sponsor-terrorism#:~:text=Lindsey%20Graham%20(R%2DSC),to%20North%20Korea's%20nuclear%20program.

[k-s-morgan]

This is a belated post where I wanted to briefly address the outcomes of 2023!

While Ukraine mostly faded from the stage of world's news, unfortunately, the situation didn't get better for my people. Every day Russia kills, maims, and ruins everything it can touch. Every day civilians die from its imprecise missiles, random shootings and artillery, and outright executions. I often see that those living in other countries call this Putin's war, but it really isn't. This is the war sponsored by Putin and his regime, true, but first and foremost, this is the war of Russian people. It's hundreds of thousands of Russian people who arm themselves and go kill our defenders and our civilians. It's Russian people who fire from tanks and other deadly weapons to ruin the Ukrainians' homes, to scorch our land, to leave nothing but destruction instead of cities and villages. It's Russian people who build the missiles, load their bombers, and fly for 5+ hours to direct them at our cities, homes, factories, and even empty fields.

This is me during one of the latest massive attack that took place on January 2. At first, at night, 35+ Russian-Iranian drones bombed us. Then Russian people sent about 100 missiles at us, mainly at my city Kyiv.

Our air defense system managed to intercept the majority of them, but while it sounds like interception is an entirely positive thing, it might have terrible consequences. Because the parts of the missiles fall down randomly. They can kill any human or creature walking down the street; they can collapse on top of a residential building. There is no escape, no way to feel safe even with the best air defense systems surrounding the city. Here's one of many disastrous results of this attack.

Dead and injured people and animals. Damaged and lost apartments.

On December 29, another attack killed over 30 people in Kyiv alone. You can see their faces below. They deserve to be seen and remembered.

This is a short story of just two latest attacks that took place just within one week, just in one city. Imagine how many of them me and my people lived through during the entire year? How many more we will have to experience?

Actually, we lived through another one before I finished writing this post. It happened on January 8, and it killed even more civilians.

I know that there are good, sane, compassionate Russians. I have some relatives among them. One of them, my aunt, can't keep herself entirely silent: she's deeply religious, and a few weeks ago, in a church, she risked saying that killing Ukrainians is bad. Another man told her that she's scum and that if she dares to open her mouth again, he will report her to authorities. The headmaster of a school where my aunt teaches was imprisoned for 7 years for refusing to hold a Z-event among students. Living there must be a torture of another kind, where you are surrounded by zombies who openly promote terrorism and bless missiles sent to kill other human beings. The problem is that sane and compassionate Russians are the minority - the vast majority is happy to either kill us or they support those who kill us. Or they simply don't care, trying to claim that everything is complicated when in reality, there is nothing complicated about it at all. Russia is a terrorist state and the world allows its people and its government to keep being monsters.

Seeing the indifference and impotence of seemingly powerful countries makes me increasingly concerned and depressed. At this point, I don't think I'm simply affected by my experiences: the world is rapidly going to hell, with terrorist countries like Russia being allowed to revel in their blood-thirstiness and the other terrorist countries, like North Korea, or potential offenders like China, observing and taking notes. When a criminal sees that no one is punished for a crime, they escalate. More criminals appear. This is what I feel is going to start happening more and more, until half of the planet is plunged into death and destruction. I'll be so very glad to be wrong.

On a personal note, I lost my most beloved pet pigeon Daikiria in 2023. I love her and miss her so much that I still cry whenever I think of her. In turn, I acquired a red nightmare of a rabbit who eats everything, including my feet, and two more pigeons. Taking care of them brings me joy - I only hope that my effort will actually benefit them.

Here's a pigeon that I named Noveria the day I found her, in a video I made for my vet. Attacked by a cat, bleeding all over, with broken ribs and a missing piece of her wing, with no tail:

Here is she now. She is feeling much better, although unfortunately, she got sick because of her weakened immune system.

My kitties continue to be adorable dorks. Here's me sleeping with my cat Tom after one of the attacks - he's really scared of loud sounds, so he sleeps like a rock afterward, just like me.

My family stays strong, and I hope we will remain to be so.

Writing stories remains a huge source of relief and distraction to me, and your support, love, and care give me strength even when I feel like I'm about to run out of it.

Thank you to those who support me on Patreon and give me a chance to have a safety net shielding me from some of the horrors and insecurities - thanks to you, I can rest sometimes when I would have to work instead; I can afford some more distractions and to write more as a result. Thank you to those who leave comments, kudos, asks; thank you to my friends who never fail to message me with questions about my well-being. I love and I appreciate you tremendously, and despite all my fears and worries, I hope that we will get to see a better future still.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

I like how existence of Mizrahi Jews confuses the shit out of left wing antisemites. Their whole shtick is mixing race theories with Marxism. So Arabs are historical oppressed browns while Ashkenazi Jews are privileged white Europeans. That's why they constantly push shit like happy dhimmi and characterize Arab conquests as good and peaceful.

However, it all falls apart when Mizrahis are introduced. While they can pretend Ashkenazis are European and even imply outlandish shit like Khazar theory on wikipedia, they can't deny that Mizrahi Jews have spent their entire existence in Middle East. Another issue is that they would also have to acknowledge how most Mizrahis got to Israel... by being pogromed by Arabs.

So they are forced to come up with outlandish explanations as to how this fits into their race theories, which ultimately just exposes how little they know about the region or how much of a malicious antisemite they are.

Ignore Mizrahis. Person cannot cope with the fact half of Israel's Jewish population has never been in Europe. So they just ignore them.

White Ashkenazis manipulated Arabs and Mizrahis into fighting each other. This one is nice mix of deceitful Jew canard, victim blaming, happy dhimmi and bit of noble savage. Even wikipedia likes this one. Excerpt from Israel and state-sponsored terrorism (thank you wikipedia): The allegations against Israeli agents had "wide consensus" amongst Iraqi Jews in Israel. Many of the Iraqi Jews in Israel who lived in poor conditions blamed their ills and misfortunes on the Israeli Zionist emissaries or Iraqi Zionist underground movement.

Israel is white supremacist state where black and brown Jews are oppressed by their white European overlords. This one is just one hop away from usual "Israel is apartheid state" nonsense. It usually focuses on things like Israel so far only having Ashkenazi prime minister and either outdated or just straight up made up facts.

Dear anon,

thank you for your essay,

I would say as the year went on we see less of 1 and more of 2 and 3 mixed together as they compliment each other nicely.

I actually don't know the origin of canard w this but considering Soviet Russia made up 3, I'd credit them with 2 as well

Please write again,

Cecil

[darth-mortem]

This is a first chapter of my COD fic "At the Crossroads of the Worlds" translated bu @g8se.

Task force "141" was sent to clean up a secret laboratory, the research of which was financed by states recognized as sponsors of terrorism. The soldiers broke into a bunker located in the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian-Georgian border. At first, everything went according to plan, but after the fighters split up, Ghost came across a strange room, the door of which locked automatically the moment he was inside. Without knowing it, Simon Riley had set off an experiment that had been brewing here for years, and now he would have to be very strong to finally return home.

Chapter 1 of 6. 2084 words.

Past character death, angst, action, secret lab, experiment, parallel worlds

August 15, 2030. Georgian-Russian border. Caucasus Mountains. Coordinates classified. Experiment status: Prepared for the first stage. Research No. 16/3. Reality LW-414/2030. Attempt to transport into reality LW414/2016.

Captain Simon "Ghost" Riley walked slowly down the corridor, illuminated by the bright, cold light of built-in lamps on the walls and ceiling. He held his assault rifle at the ready and listened to the conversations of other members of Task Force 141 through the earpiece of his radio. The unit had split up ten minutes ago, and its members were now inspecting all levels of the bunker, each carrying out their assigned tasks. Some engaged in clearing operations, facing armed guards head-on, while others searched for information and civilian personnel in this classified scientific facility funded by the budgets of several countries - sponsors of terrorism, including Russia, Iran, Palestine, and several others.

Ghost inspected this level of the bunker alone. The commander of Task Force 141, Major Price, had ordered the soldiers to form groups of two or three, but Simon didn’t follow this order. He hadn't followed them for seven years since that fateful day, when a bullet from the Russian terrorist Makarov's pistol took the life of Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish.

For Ghost, John wasn't just a partner or a fellow soldier; he was the one who saw beyond the terrifying skull mask and recognized a human in him. He made Simon feel alive again. John reminded him of how to be happy, laugh, and love. He was Ghost's personal ray of sunshine, and when he was gone, the light went out forever.

Riley couldn't come to terms with it and continue to live a full life. He kept his distance from everyone and didn't even try to socialize with the new members of the unit. People came and went, and Simon didn't even bother to remember their faces. At some point, he considered leaving the army altogether, but then he realized that he didn't know how to do anything else, so he stayed. The only person Simon occasionally spoke to outside of missions was Price. He knew that Simon felt guilty for John's death, which is why he turned a blind eye to Ghost's insubordination, especially considering that he was still the most effective member of Task Force 141.

The doors to his right of swung open, and his reflexes kicked in before his brain. The man in a white lab coat received a devastating blow to the face with the butt of the rifle and fell like a felled tree. Captain Riley dragged him into the room he had emerged from and quickly secured him to a pipe using plastic ties.

“Bravo 0-7, took another one,” Ghost reported over the radio. “Checking the last rooms on the sixth level.”

“Copy, Bravo 0-7,” he heard Price's response. “Try to find out what they were up to. We're almost done clearing the fifth level and heading down to you. Copy?”

“Crystal clear,” Ghost frowned, and the corners of his lips under the mask drooped. “Bravo 0-7, out.”

He didn't need assistance. Riley could handle it on his own and escort the captives. But he never argued with Price during missions. Ghost might not follow his orders, but for other soldiers, the authority of the major had to remain unquestionable.

After surveying the room, Ghost went out and headed towards the last set of doors at the end of the corridor. Behind them, was a desolated room in absolute chaos. Chairs were scattered on the floor, papers strewn about, monitors partially turned off, only a few displaying some unintelligible numbers and symbols that constantly changed each other. There could be something useful here, but before sitting at the computer and attempting to extract information, Ghost moved towards another set of doors in the far corner of the room. These were massive air-tight doors with a complex opening mechanism. Opposite them stood a table with several monitors, and looking at them, Simon understood that one of them seemingly transmitted views from several cameras installed in the room behind the mysterious doors. Why this was necessary, the captain did not understand, as the small room behind the doors was absolutely empty. Its walls were covered in some silvery material, thick wires protruding in places. Also, Riley noticed several panels with small screens and numerous LED indicators.

“Bravo 0-7,” Ghost spoke, examining the locking mechanism of the air-tight doors on the room's interior monitor, “it seems I've found something.”

“What exactly, Bravo 0-7?” Price asked.

“Don't know yet,” Riley replied. “Trying to figure it out.”

“Be careful,” the major said. “Bravo 6, out.”

Simon glanced at the other monitors. Two code designations immediately caught his eye: LW414/2030 and LW414/2016. A progress bar flickered between them, showing ninety-eight percent, followed by calculations of adjustments in meters and, for some reason, in hours. Simon couldn't comprehend what it was exactly because everything was encrypted. He tried to look at the papers, but it was even worse, so without further delay, Riley approached the air-tight doors and pulled the lever of the opening mechanism.

As soon as he entered the small square room, Simon smelled the electrified air. An orange light started flashing above the door, and instead of the voices of the soldiers he heard a buzzing noise of interference in his earpiece. Some contour that ran around the entire perimeter of the room opened after the doors were unlocked and now lit up in red. A mechanical female voice from a speaker hidden somewhere in the wall began to repeat something persistently in a language Ghost did not know, and then the doors automatically closed, and the lever of the mechanism moved into the "locked" position. The contour closed, its colour changed from red to green, and the voice from the speaker said something else, after which it started a countdown.

“Fucking hell,” Riley cursed, slinging his rifle over his shoulder and rushing towards the doors. “Bravo 0-7 calling Bravo 6! Bravo 6, can you hear me?”

There was no response. There wasn't even interference, just dead silence. Ghost grabbed the lever, tried to turn it, but all in vain, despite the fact that the captain was a very physically strong person.

The electrifying sensation intensified. The air distinctly smelled of ozone, and sparks began to run along the walls following complex and tangled contours. Riley retreated to the centre of the room, gritting his teeth. The room was too small to blast the doors, and they were so massive that it might not work anyway. The countdown continued, electrical discharges intensified, and then Ghost saw how the laces of his boots lifted into the air. The same happened with other elements of his gear – at first with smaller items, but gradually even heavier objects, like his assault rifle, which the lieutenant grabbed by the strap and pulled towards himself.

“Bravo 6,” Ghost tried once more without any hope, “John, can you hear me? Respond!”

The captain felt his feet lifting off the floor, where lines of contours were also glowing. Numbers and symbols appeared on the screens of the panels, all indicators lit up green, and then the accumulated static turned into a powerful electrical arc that pierced Ghost's body, sending him into oblivion.

Consciousness returned to him slowly but surely. Riley felt the cold wind piercing through his clothes and gear. Somewhere nearby, he could hear rumbling, and these sounds seemed familiar, but Ghost couldn't recall what exactly could be the source.

Captain Riley could only open his eyes on the third attempt. Above him was the overcast sky shrouded in led clouds. He lay on the ground, arms outstretched, listening to the rumbling of... the helicopter rotor!

Simon didn't understand what was happening. He remembered being trapped in a small room deep underground in the bunker. He remembered something strange happening to him, a jolt of wildly powerful electricity, and... he found himself here. And now, as he slightly raised himself and looked around, Ghost realized where exactly this "here" was. The landscape around him was familiar – it was what the members of Task Force 141 saw when they landed and headed towards the entrance to the bunker. Perhaps, Major Price or someone from the team managed to open those doors from the outside. They found Ghost in the blackout and brought him to the surface. So, the helicopter he hears is their evacuation transport.

Having reasoned this way, Ghost stood up, hoisted his assault rifle, and headed towards the sound. Of course, it was strange to be left alone here, but perhaps the soldiers were occupied with captives, and someone went for supplies. Captain Riley, however, felt better, and overall quite normal for someone who got electrocuted. The radio was still silent, but Simon had already climbed a small hill, saw the helicopter, and people around. Captain Riley was about to shout that he was okay when suddenly he realized that these people were not members of Task Force 141. Moreover, it seemed they were enemies. They surrounded two soldiers, one of whom seemed to be seriously injured. The other was supporting him on his shoulders and wouldn't have time to grab his weapon when one of the men – presumably the leader – pulled out his pistol and pointed it at his chest.

Simon didn't know what was happening, but he saw a patch with the British flag on the sleeve of the man the other was aiming at. Without thinking for another second, Captain Riley swung his assault rifle off his shoulder, released the safety, and, chambering a round, fired a short burst into the air, drawing attention to himself.

They started to shoot at Ghost, so he ran, ducking and returning fire, and when the distance closed, he pulled out and threw several metal knives one after another, reducing the number of enemies. The soldier with the British flag carefully laid his comrade on the ground and remained by his side, also starting to return fire. Now Ghost could see his balaclava with a skull print and the bald head of the enemy leader, who, realizing that something had gone awry, was trying to retreat to the helicopter.

"Hey, you!" Ghost found himself next to the guy in the balaclava and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Kill the pilot! Come on, let's go!"

He nodded and ran around the helicopter. Captain Riley stayed with the wounded soldier and quickly replaced the magazine in his rifle. Meanwhile, the bald man turned around, raising his pistol again, and Ghost froze, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Shepherd?" he finally exclaimed. "It can't be!"

After Johnny’s death, Price himself killed the traitor of a general with his own hands, yet here he was, staring at Ghost with a cold gaze and aiming a pistol at him.

A gunshot echoed. The bullet hit Simon in the chest, but it didn't get through the armoured plate. Captain Riley, purely on reflexes, returned fire. A burst from his assault rifle tore through Shepard's body, and he fell. Another soldier in a balaclava was already running toward Riley, wielding his weapon.

"Shepard is a traitor!" he shouted. "I just received a message from the captain!"

"We need to get out of here," Ghost got up, rubbing his chest. "Let's carry your friend into the heli. Provide him with first aid. I'll take the pilot's seat. Just tell me where to fly."

Two soldiers, both hiding their faces behind skull masks, picked up the third one and brought him into the helicopter. The situation was strange, even wild, but Simon strangely felt neither suspicion nor doubt towards his new companion. On the contrary, this man seemed eerily familiar and inspired absolute trust in Simon. And it appeared that the guy in the balaclava felt the same way about Riley. He didn't ask who his unexpected rescuer was or where he came from, haven’t even asked for Ghost's name. However, Ghost didn't waste time on etiquette either. After receiving the coordinates for the flight, Riley focused on piloting the helicopter, glancing at the dashboard. Somewhere there, they would meet a captain, likely the leader of these two soldiers. Most likely, he could clarify the situation and provide Ghost with information about what happened to TF 141 and where to find them.

“We’re almost there,” Ghost reported, having replaced his dead radio with the one that belonged to the pilot of this helicopter. “How's your friend?”

“Solid,” came the response. “Our guys are already waiting, so land here!”

“Roger that,” Riley replied briefly and started to land, glancing at the two soldiers who were waving at the helicopter.

[eretzyisrael]

ny Nils A. Haug

[I]t clearly looks as if the Biden administration just wants to please its terrorist-sponsoring adversaries, Iran and Qatar, by allowing their prized client, Hamas, to win the war.

Regrettably, Iran does not seem to be guided by the same humanitarian, ethical, or "natural law principles" embraced by Israel and the West.

A jihadist in Iran's premier militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)... probably sees the job of the IRGC as driving the US out of the Middle East so that Iran can continue to "Export the Revolution" without interference.

It is with good reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complains that the US is withholding, or "slow-walking," military supplies. In Ukraine, for instance, badly needed arms are always "being delivered" but somehow never manage to arrive until long after they might actually have helped.

Although Israel's leaders are well aware of the immense danger presented by Iran, the US and other Western allies evidently cannot be relied upon to prevent Iran from completing its nuclear weapons program. The US appears to like talking, and talking about talking, diplomacy backed up by talking, verbal "understandings" so long as they have no teeth, then paying what looks like bribe money for adversaries not to "make waves," presumably at least not before the America's upcoming November election.

The Biden administration, it seems, would rather deal with threatening situations via... worthless promises from Iran, Russia, China, the Taliban, the Palestinians or whoever else will offer appeasements.

The critical point is that Israel is fighting to safeguard not just its own nation, but the West and the Free World as well. The battle at the moment seems between preserving freedom or having it extinguished by the forces of barbarism, autocracies and theocrats, but most of all by the passivity of the West.... Silky, stealth aggressors include Qatar -- the consigliere of all Islamic terror groups -- which uses money and its media network Al-Jazeera, not military aggression, as its means of persuasion.

Sadly, the Biden administration appears to view Israel not as a sovereign nation but a US satrapy. It is hardly a secret that the US has been trying to oust Israel's elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and replace him presumably with a subordinate. That US puppet would supposedly be delighted to have a terrorist Palestinian state next door administered by the terrorist godfather, Qatar, and be delighted to see Iran have as many nuclear weapons as it likes.

If Obama ostensibly conceived of this arrangement [the 2015 "nuclear deal"] to "balance the influence" of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, the plan has failed colossally. Saudi Arabia, for all its faults, has not tried to enlarge its territory....

At present, both the Biden administration in the US and opposition in Israel to its current government seem to be trying to muscle Netanyahu out. US Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who happens to be Jewish, declared in mid-March that Netanyahu had "lost his way" and called for "new elections" -- not in the Senator's own country, the US, but in that of a sovereign ally, Israel. Would he have called for "new elections" in England, Germany, Italy or France? Biden, unsurprisingly, quickly "embraced Schumer's speech."

Many, including some who might be looking longingly at Netanyahu's job, have advocated that "Hamas cannot be defeated." Meanwhile, Netanyahu has been doing exactly that.

The US and others have tried to claim that before defeating an adversary, one must know what will happen after the fighting stops, and that destroying Hamas's military capability will just create another whole generation of Gazans who hate Israelis and Jews. Before defeating Hitler, however, no one had suggested that it was important to know what would happen "after the fighting stopped"; the same holds true for Imperial Japan....at present, both Germany and Japan are solid allies of the US and the West. There are probably still Nazis in Germany, but they no longer have the "means, capability or opportunity" to disrupt Europe.

The US appears to be doing the bidding of its terrorist-supporting collaborators, Iran and Qatar, and their supporters -- potential voters in America's heartland -- and those who want Hamas to survive to "attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated."

All that is required is to make sure that Israel has the ammunition and weapons it needs to fight on our behalf, to make sure they are delivered immediately, and then get out of the way.

[mariacallous]

Can a video game teach you to resist disinformation?

The U.S. government certainly thinks so: In May, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), the government agency tasked with countering foreign disinformation, released a request for proposal offering $1 million for “an evergreen game in a sandbox platform, with an existing fan base, in which participants play a game that builds cognitive resilience to authoritarianism and promotes democratic norms and values.” The call for a sandbox platform refers to open, multiplayer game spaces such as Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite, which allow players to build forts, explore virtual worlds, experience short stories, and share experiences. This request is asking for proposals to use creative mode in Fortnite (or a similar platform) to design a custom game experience—only instead of being fun, it is meant to train people to resist Russian disinformation.

It’s an intriguing way to combat an existential challenge for democracy. Can play undermine lies more effectively than speech does? There is a lot about this idea that is compelling, but there are just as many reasons to be skeptical.

The GEC’s idea certainly has some validity. It wants to leverage the emerging field of prebunking—the art of making people aware of disinformation before they encounter it—to help build media literacy skills and contribute to online safety. This is a process that researchers call “inoculation,” which treats disinformation like a virus: You need to train your psychological immune system, so to speak, to learn how to identify and reject bad information. Researchers have suggested different methods for this, ranging from a very literal metaphor of exposing people to “weakened” forms of common disinformation up to complex media literacy training intended to prepare people to identify disinformation on their own.

Using games as part of the battle over information isn’t new. The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism has an entire project devoted to understanding the role of video games in what the U.N. calls “countering violent extremism.” Late last year, the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency—which, like the GEC, is empowered to combat foreign disinformation—sponsored research into foreign political interference that uses video games. And the European Journalism Observatory has highlighted video games, specifically, as a vector for disinformation during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

So, the GEC is addressing a serious problem with global implications. And the sandbox anti-disinformation proposal is not the only video game program that the agency is funding. As Aftermath reports, it is also offering $250,000 for a program at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine that will use the process of building an esports team and hosting an esports tournament to provide “counter disinformation/conflict resolution training to confront foreign propaganda and disinformation in competitive online gaming spaces.” While these sums may seem high, a typical “indie” game (one that is not developed by a major studio) can cost a million dollars or more, and so-called AAA games (such as Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, or Call of Duty) can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop.

One challenge that inoculation programs face is establishing success conditions. After all, how do you know when someone is successfully protected against disinformation? There is no good answer for this yet—we can design experiments and surveys to measure how messages are being accepted or rejected by a population, but—like other preventative measures—success is negative. You know the program worked if you don’t see people repeating disinformation, rather than knowing it worked because some tangible finish line has been crossed. It is a problem requiring constant vigilance. In that sense, the GEC’s call for an evergreen (permanent) game to counter disinformation is aligned with broad aspects of disinformation research.

But is a game the best way to do this? For decades, games studies have adopted an argument put forth by Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga in the 1930s: Games and play are essential to civilization, because they (however unintentionally) teach children how to socialize and move within rules-based systems in a mirror of society.

Building on those ideas, media theorist Ian Bogost coined the term “procedural rhetoric” in the 2000s to argue that video games instruct players to view the world through a certain set of rules and to discard others—even when trying to ��break” a game system, he argued, players are still learning how rules and games work. If one accepts this line of argument, then it would naturally follow that an effort to design a game to inoculate against disinformation has the potential to be highly effective.

There are some problems with this approach. The research into so-called serious games, which are games intended to do something other than entertain, suggests that they are the most effective when they are also fun to play. This is a bit of a contradiction, since a serious game is not made with entertainment as its primary purpose, and that is reflected in the GEC’s call. There is no mention of the evergreen game being fun for its players. The agency, understandably, is focused on the outcomes of the game, not the game itself. But making serious games fun is a hard challenge that researchers are still working on, and without it, the effectiveness of any serious game will be limited.

The fun challenge has plagued efforts to use video games to do achieve goals in foreign policy, statecraft, and human rights since the start of the 21st century. Games such as the International Committee of the Red Cross’s LifeRun (2020) or 11 Bit Studio’s This War of Mine (2011) try to cultivate in players a concern for civilians in warfare. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah released Special Force (2003) so players can battle against Israeli soldiers in South Lebanon, and Fursan Al-Aqsa (2022), places players in the shoes of a Palestinian student who seeks revenge on the Israeli soldiers who tortured him in prison. Fursan is available on Steam, an online video game marketplace used by players around the world that (relevant for the GEC grants) also restricts sales in Russia and Belarus due to sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Militaries have used games for propaganda, too, from America’s Army (2002) to China’s Glorious Mission (2011). Some of these games went nowhere. (Hezbollah, for instance, did not make a fun game.) But others, such as America’s Army, endured for decades because they were fun—and that game became fun by abandoning some of its more serious pretensions as new editions were published.

While it is clear that the GEC is drawing on a large number of precedents, ideas, and projects, is there evidence that any of it works? After studying the Red Cross’s LifeRun game, which seems to be a close analog to the GEC’s call for proposals, scholar Jolene Fisher concluded that there are structural limits to what these games can be expected to do, given their small distribution and limited scale. In a recent report, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace observed that initiatives to support local journalism and media literacy education were far more effective at undermining disinformation than statecraft or counter-messaging, but the former are also much more difficult to fund, implement, and scale.

Bogost, the media scholar, reflected in 2018 on his experience trying to make “persuasive games” and concluded the concept was more promise than delivery. “It was emotion and novelty that drove much of the interest in this work,” he wrote, not concrete or supportable projects. It could be that games are just an accessible channel to do this work compared to more effective methods.

There are broader issues with the GEC’s plans, too. I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the U.S. Army Esports (USAE) team, an effort launched in 2018 in an attempt to use esports to bolster years of flagging recruitment. The U.S. Defense Department certainly seems to be convinced that the team has been effective in growing its recruiting pipeline and boosting morale, however controversial it may be. But it also does not release data to support its claims of effectiveness, and in 2023, the Army announced a major overhaul of the recruiting process due to multiple consecutive years of missing enlistment goals. If the USAE is effective at growing recruitment, that growth was hard to see. (The service claims that it is on track to meet a much lower recruiting goal in 2024).

I wasn’t alone in observing the limited effects that games on influencing thinking. A couple of years ago, games scholar Philip Hammond observed that decades of U.S. military influence on video games has coincided with declining recruiting and less public trust. If games can persuade people, it’s hard to see how.

This does not mean that such programs are a failure, nor does it mean that the GEC’s program is futile. Rather, it indicates that, as Bogost cautioned, we should be clear about the gap between promise and delivery, and mindful of where that gap emerges.

The GEC’s success in persuading social media companies to moderate away Islamist extremist content on their platforms (the most effective way to counter disinformation, according to researchers) suggests that it sometimes can do this work effectively. After all, while the growing presence of extremists in video games is a real concern, it is the community and discourse around games where that extremism tends to emerge, not within the storylines and play of the games themselves.

Games scholar Sky LaRell Anderson calls these conversations “extraludic narratives,” and in studying them found that they form an important basis for building communities around sharing gameplay experiences. Such a dynamic leaves open the potential for the GEC’s sponsored esports team in Ukraine to influence some of those narratives about Russia, or even to cultivate a community of resistance against Russian narratives in Ukraine’s Esports spaces. But researchers find this dynamic hard for outsiders to understand in real time, much less to intentionally shape beforehand. Governments just aren’t cool, and the USAE’s own engagement scandals point to the many scenarios where government sponsorship might be a poison pill.

The GEC has experienced this with its other efforts to counter disinformation. Its successful campaign to contain Islamist disinformation online, when applied to countering Russian disinformation, resulted in the center being subjected to unfair, partisan attacks by far-right politicians in the United States. Republicans in the House of Representatives tried last year to block the center’s budgetary reauthorization, falsely claiming that it targeted conservatives for censorship. Embattled Rep. Darrell Issa disputed the need for a counter-disinformation agency and claimed that the GEC had no successes to justify its budget despite the agency’s successful work countering disinformation.

The dishonest nature of these attacks points to a difficult political environment emerging for the agency. It could be the case that sponsoring games and gaming events is all that the agency has left if platform governance has become closed off by toxic right-wing politics. The GEC is a meaningful organization that treats the threat of disinformation with the appropriate seriousness.

But if politics prevent the agency from responding effectively to disinformation in the venues where it can be the most effective, it is hard to blame it for trying something else. Still, we should be cautious and keep our expectations in check: As unfair as the right-wing attacks on the agency are, and as hard as it works to address disinformation globally, those same attacks will also be carried over to the teams and games the agency sponsors.

Even in an ideal environment, there would be modest expectations for such a small program, but those may be impossible to meet. Disinformation is ultimately a political challenge, not a technical one, and the politics of disinformation in the United States have already tied the GEC’s hands. It’s just not clear how this political problem can be solved with a video game.

[mightyflamethrower]

Shortly after the terror attacks of October 7, the United States’ position initially appeared to be very clear. This was Israel’s war to fight and we would provide material and vocal support, but allow them to handle it as they saw fit. That lasted for about two weeks. By this past weekend, the situation had shifted noticeably, with threats of escalation showing up to the north of Israel from Hezbollah and rocket attacks on American posts in various places, including Iraq. And now both the Secretary of State and the Defense Secretary are clearly preparing the country for the possibility that the entire situation may blow up and our military is “ready” to go to war if we must. That’s a lot to soak in on a Monday morning, but a wider war may turn out to be inevitable unless Iran can be convinced to back down. (Associated Press)

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday that the United States expects the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran, and they asserted that the Biden administration is prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities. “This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” Blinken said. “We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it.” Austin, echoing Blinken, said “what we’re seeing is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region.”

I’m not going to criticize Blinken, Austin, or the Biden administration for facing reality and saying that we are “prepared” for war. It’s a crazy world, and we should always be prepared to go to war if we must. But we must also keep in mind the fact that war is and always must be the course of last resort. (Did we learn nothing from Iraq?) Diplomacy is always the preferred option if possible.

Sadly, diplomacy with Iran may not even be possible. They remain the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism and they are already at war with us, Israel, and the West in general. They just fight their wars in an unconventional fashion. If Hezbollah opens up a full attack on Israel from the north and attempts to move into Israeli territory, we will know immediately that it was Iran that equipped the terrorists and gave them the green light to go in.

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In this regard, Joe Biden does bear a significant amount of the blame. It’s difficult to argue that we didn’t see this level of unrest and fighting in the Middle East during the Trump administration because we were cracking down on Iran, enforcing the sanctions on their oil exports, and taking out leading terrorist figures with missiles when they misbehaved. That all changed as soon as Joe Biden took office and began begging Iran to restart Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal. Iran has grown fat with cash under Biden’s watch, shipping massive volumes of oil to China and other destinations, all of which should have been blocked under the existing sanctions.

Biden’s timid and conciliatory approach to Iran was not rewarded with cooperation or better behavior. The Mullahs simply pocketed our cash and used it to ramp up the capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah. And now they have launched a full-fledged war on Israel that threatens to embroil the entire region if not the world. (Russia has already been threatening Israel and China is now making similar noises and they have dispatched warships into the region. This could still go global.)

It didn’t have to be this way. These bad actors, particularly Iran, do not respect tokens of friendship or efforts to bargain. They only understand and respect strength. When America fails to lead with strength, our adversaries take note and have shown that they are willing to seize the opportunity, potentially to horrific effect. It may be too late to dial this back at this point, but unless Biden shows a significantly stiffer spine, the entire world may wind up changing significantly, leaving America’s days as a global power and thought leader in the dust.

Whatever Happened to "Give Peace a Chance"

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Wow! Excellent work! Terrorist organization decapitated...!!!

P.S. This is the right way to negotiate with terrorists sponsored by a dictatorial regimes - Iran and Russia...The Russians supplied Hezbollah with weapons, money and intelligence through Iran and Syria...

[minnesotafollower]

Two U.S. Congress Officials Object to O’Grady’s Defense of U.S. Designation of Cuba as State Sponsor of Terrorism   

U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (Dem., Mass.) and U.S. Senator Peter Welch (Dem., VT) jointly voice their objection to Mary Anastasi O’Grady’s defense of the  U.S. designation of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism because, they argue, she presented no evidence for that action.[1] Yes, McGovern and Welch say, “Cuban officials meet with counterparts in Russia and China, but so do American…

[tomorrowusa]

Imagine 9/11 as an everyday occurrence rather than as a one-time event and you have some idea of what is going on in Ukraine.

Putin and his clique need to be brought to justice just as the perpetrators of 9/11 were. Instead, they're being normalized by tankies, far right media hosts, and the amoral leaders of certain countries.

Russia intentionally bombs schools, medical facilities, cultural institutions, apartment buildings, playgrounds, and granaries.

Putin has understood since April of 2022 that he can never conquer all of Ukraine so he is simply engaging in a genocidal temper tantrum to hurt his neighbor as much as possible. Destroying a maternity hospital temporarily makes him feel better about not having a victory parade in Kyiv.

Under Putin, Russia is a terrorist state. You don't negotiate with terrorists – you arrest them and put them on trial.

Ukraine war: European Parliament votes to declare Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism' Ukraine brands Russia 'terrorist state' in opening statement at International Court

[audhdnight]

The murderous terror assault by Hamas on Israel was the worst terrorist attack on a democratic country since 9/11. In fact, proportionate to population, the death toll from these attacks is about six times worse than 9/11. Those of us over 30 remember the Bali bombings of 2002, when Islamist terrorists killed 88 Australians. Imagine a terror attack on Australia which caused 4,000 deaths. That would be equivalent to what Israel has undergone at the hands of Hamas.

One of the standard responses to this assault has been to assert that Israel has the right to defend itself. The United Nations Charter gives all sovereign states that right. Ukraine is exercising that right, right now, in the face of Russia's illegal invasion. But Ukraine's situation is very different to Israel's. Russia has launched a conventional military invasion, which Ukraine is resisting by conventional military means. Apart from Russia and its apologists, no-one seriously disputes Ukraine's right to resist Russia's invasion.

Israel, by contrast, has faced an attack by a non-state actor, Hamas, which has seized control of a territory, Gaza, contiguous to Israel, and used it to launch repeated missile offensives against Israeli cities, and now a full-scale terror assault on Israeli communities. In these circumstances, what does it mean to say that "Israel has the right to defend itself"? Does it mean that Israel can fight off (or kill) the terrorists that attacked it, but cannot touch them or their commanders in the territory they control? That is a recipe for endless repeats of what we have seen over the past week.

The right to self-defence is not a purely passive right, a right to react when attacked. The stated purpose of Hamas is the destruction of Israel and the death of every Jew in Israel – indeed every Jew in the world. The experience of the past decade, culminating in the events of last week, shows that Israel cannot defend itself against an existential threat of that kind unless Hamas is destroyed. That is the mission Israel has now undertaken.

Contrary to the repeated assertions of Israel's legion of critics, the Israel Defence Force does not deliberately target civilians.* It targets terrorist infrastructure. But because Hamas chooses as a deliberate strategy to embed its terrorist infrastructure among the civilian population of Gaza, Hamas cannot be destroyed without causing civilian casualties. Hamas fires its rockets from schools and hospitals and mosques, so that Israel will be forced to bomb these sites to stop the missile attacks. Hamas in fact wants civilian deaths in Gaza, so that it can display its "martyrs" in front of the world's media and anti-Israel NGOs like Amnesty.

Everyone who has repeated the statement "Israel has the right to defend itself" will now have to remain resolute in support of Israel’s decision to exercise that right in practice over the coming days and weeks. Whether Israel decides on a land invasion, or confines itself to air attacks, there will be a lot of deaths in Gaza. Israel's friends will need to stress, in the face a concerted anti-Israel propaganda campaign, that responsibility for every death that occurs in Gaza lies with Hamas, and also with the Iranian regime which sponsors and bankrolls Hamas.

* If you believe Israel does target civilians, or is engaged in "collective punishment" in bombing Gaza, consider this. Gaza is a densely populated urban area, with no air defences and no air-raid shelters (because Hamas does not allow them). Israel has among the most powerful and sophisticated armed forces in the world. It has complete control of the air over Gaza. If Israel chose, it could reduce the whole of Gaza to rubble in a few days and kill most of its population. Clearly that is not what Israel has chosen to do.

Although currently available statistics are not very reliable, they bear this out. According to al-Jazeera, Israel has dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza this week, and has killed 2,700 people in doing so. That is, Israel has had to drop 2.2 bombs to kill one person. Does anyone seriously suppose that the Israeli Air Force is as incompetent as that kill-rate suggests? These figures can only mean that Israel is actively trying to avoid killing civilians.

Way to be anonymous you fucking coward. The number of dead is well over five thousand and rising, not counting the hundreds lost in the rubble that can’t technically be counted as dead yet because no one has found them.

Israel is a terrorist “government” and if you seriously refuse to see that, I dare you to go live in Gaza and see how long you last. How long could you survive while the schools and UNRWA relief warehouses and churches and HOSPITALS you tried to refuge in got bombed? How long would you stave off starvation when Israel bombs the only bakery left? How long before the rampant diseases took you over because you’re drinking dirty water and unable to clean injuries and breathing in dust and smoke and the smell of feces and death everywhere?

And then I want you to watch as everyone around the world decides you deserve this and you don’t need help or to be saved, simply by virtue of the fact that you are inside Gaza.

NO ONE deserves that, not even your fucking disgusting cowardly ass. Israel’s occupation of Palestine is wrong, and inhumane, and the fact that the entire world is not only letting them get away with it, but HELPING THEM DO IT? I am so beyond ashamed to live in a world with people like you and Joe Biden and every Zionist/Nazi out there.

Get the fuck off my page.

[brexiiton]

After terror attack, Russia sees U.S. role and claims it is at war with NATO

By Robyn Dixon, April 3 2024 at 2:22pm

The Russian flag flies at half-staff on March 28 in memory of the victims of a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow. (Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

RIGA, Latvia — In the aftermath of last month’s terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow, Russian officials not only have blamed Ukraine but also have repeatedly accused the West of involvement — even though U.S. officials insist they gave Moscow a specific warning that the Islamic State could attack the venue.

If the U.S. warning was so detailed, it raises further questions about Russia’s failure to prevent the country’s worst terrorist attack in two decades. But rather than publicly confronting questions about their own actions, Russian security officials have disregarded the claims of responsibility by the Islamic State.

Instead, they have insisted that U.S. and British intelligence were involved in helping Ukraine organize the strike.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment Wednesday on a report in The Washington Post that U.S intelligence specifically warned Russia that Crocus City Hall could be a target for terrorists. The New York Times published a similar report shortly after The Post.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev on Wednesday directly blamed Ukrainian security services for the Crocus City Hall attack, in which at least 114 people were killed. Patrushev also hinted at Western involvement.

A day earlier, he accused Western intelligence of using terrorist groups to attack adversaries.

“They are trying to make us think that the terrorist attack was perpetrated not by the Kyiv regime but by followers of radical Islamic ideology, possibly members of the Afghan branch of [the Islamic State],” Patrushev said at a meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, of security council secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization nations. He said it was more important to identify the “masterminds and sponsors,” squarely blaming Ukrainian security services. He added that numerous hoax bomb threats have emanated from Ukrainian territory since the attack.

“It is also indicative that the West began insisting on Ukraine’s noninvolvement in the crime as soon as the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall was reported,” Patrushev said.

Russia’s blame game comes amid increasingly confrontational anti-NATO rhetoric from top security officials who insist that the U.S.-led alliance is fighting a “war” against Russia. Several of these officials have hinted repeatedly about Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons.

NATO officials continue to assert the alliance’s right to supply Ukraine the weapons it needs to defend its territory.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow in 2022. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)

Since the Crocus City Hall attack, Russian officials have subtly framed the violence as part of that “war,” while barely mentioning the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch, Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, which U.S. intelligence officials have said was responsible.

U.S. intelligence also warned last month that terrorists could attack a Moscow synagogue. A day after receiving the warning, on March 7, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had prevented an attack on a Moscow synagogue by an ISIS-K cell.

Asked if the United States warned Russia that Crocus City Hall was a possible target for a terrorist attack and whether a U.S. warning helped the FSB avert the synagogue attack, Peskov on Wednesday declined to confirm the report.

“Okay, I see,” he said. “This is not our competence because such information exchanges are conducted at the level of specialized services, and the information is transmitted directly from service to service.”

The spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, on Wednesday alleged a disinformation campaign by Washington and said the U.S. government should prove that the reports in The Post and the Times were true by disclosing when and to whom the detailed warning was given.

At least two members of the cell that planned the synagogue attack, based in the Kaluga region, were killed by FSB agents when they opened fire during arrest, according to the agency, which reported that the cell was planning to attack the synagogue using firearms. Kazakhstan confirmed that two of its citizens were killed in the raid.

Four days after the Crocus City Hall attack, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov blamed Ukraine and said Western security services were involved.

“We believe that the action was prepared by radical Islamists, naturally, Western security services contributed to it, and Ukrainian security services bore a direct relation,” Bortnikov told reporters.

Patrushev told the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper in an interview published Tuesday that Washington used NATO as a tool to carry out hybrid wars “to undermine and disorganize the system of state administration of countries that do not agree with the policy of the Anglo-Saxons.”

“At the same time, the alliance does not disdain using terrorist organizations in its interests,” he said. NATO, he said, “has been a source of danger, crises and conflicts for many years.”

Three days before the Crocus City Hall attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin had dismissed the U.S. warnings, calling them “outright blackmail” and attempts to “intimidate and destabilize our society.”

Putin and other Russian officials have made no mention of the U.S. intelligence supplied in relation to the planned synagogue attack.

In an interview with Argumenty i Fakty published on the morning of the Crocus City Hall strike, Peskov said NATO was waging a war against Russia, repeating a linchpin of Kremlin propaganda used to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to mobilize Russia’s population behind the war.

“We are in a state of war. Yes, it started out as a special military operation, but as soon as that bunch formed there, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, it has already become a war for us. I am convinced of that. And everyone should understand this, for their internal mobilization,” Peskov said.

Putin alleged a Ukrainian link to the Crocus City Hall terrorists the day after the attack when he told Russians in a speech to the nation that “a window was prepared for them from the Ukraine side to cross the state border.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears on a screen onstage in Moscow's Red Square last month. (Reuters)

Top pro-Kremlin propagandists, including Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the RT news channel, ramped up attacks blaming Ukraine and the West. In a post on social media, she asserted that Western intelligence clearly played a direct role in the Crocus City Hall attack because it had identified the perpetrators.

“They knew who the perpetrators were. Before the detention. That’s direct involvement,” Simonyan posted, later adding that the source of the attack was “not ISIS,” but Ukraine.

Likewise, Russian lawmaker Alexander Yakubovsky claimed that “the Nazi terrorist regime of Ukraine is behind this terrorist attack, possibly using radical Islamists, but without Western intelligence services it is impossible to pull this off.”

Another hard-line Russian lawmaker, Pyotr Tolstoy, posted on Telegram that the attack could not be seen apart from “the war with the collective West for the peaceful futures of our children.”

The Kremlin’s effort to blame Ukraine and the West for the attack appears to have succeeded in mobilizing Russians around the war effort. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that 1,700 Russians a day were signing contracts to fight in Ukraine, many of them, it added, motivated by the Crocus City Hall attack. In the past 10 days, 16,000 people have signed contracts, it announced.

Shortly after the U.S. warnings were shared with Russia, the authorities did tighten security at Crocus City Hall, according to a 15-year-old coat-check boy, Islam Khalilov. He told Russian media: “We were warned a week ago that there might be attacks. There was training. They told us what to do, where to lead people. I was ready for it in principle. That week there were the toughest checks, with dogs.”

But just days later, on a busy Friday evening, four gunmen rampaged through Crocus City Hall, shooting concertgoers and setting the hall on fire without any resistance, according to video from the scene.

It remains unclear why security was loosened again. Russian officials — and pro-Kremlin news outlets — have steered clear of the question, instead focusing on blaming Ukraine and the West.

Putin, speaking at an Interior Ministry meeting Tuesday, called for increased security at concert venues, shopping centers and other places where crowds gather.

“It’s important above all to bring law, order and security at crowded places, at sports and transport facilities, shopping and recreation centers, schools, hospitals, colleges, theaters and so on up to a new level,” he said.

Russia’s foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, claimed Tuesday that U.S. intelligence on the Crocus City Hall attack was too general to be of help.

“Indeed, the FSB did receive information,” he said. “The information was too general and did not allow the ultimate identification of perpetrators of the horrible crime.”

Shane Harris in Washington and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga contributed to this report.

[alisaint]

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in Cuba in recent days, furious over the lack of food and electricity. With chants of "hunger" and "we want food," the demonstrations have centered in Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-biggest city, and surrounding towns in the southeastern area of the island. They are the biggest anti-government protests since 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets, triggering a massive crackdown by the state. Since then, the economic situation has deteriorated further, and analysts say the crisis is the worst in at least three decades. Claribel, 58, a resident of Santiago, says hardly a day goes by when there aren't at least five hours of power outages. Food is in such short supply that her 2-year-old great-nephew is being fed juice instead of milk. Public transportation has dried up because of a lack of fuel. "The situation here is horrible," Claribel says. "To live in Cuba is a tragedy." NPR is withholding her last name for her safety. Cuba's economy began tanking during the pandemic, when international tourism plummeted and inflation soared. During that same period, former President Donald Trump imposed a range of sanctions on Cuba after re-designating the country a "state sponsor of terrorism." But conditions in the country have rapidly spiraled in recent months, especially in poorer regions outside of the capital of Havana. Fuel prices have increased five-fold since the beginning of March. The cost of public transportation has also soared, to the extent there is any. The Cuban government suspended all sports tournaments because of a lack of transportation. Blackouts have become a constant. The communist government — which uses a rationing system to provide a certain amount of food per household — has even started limiting its allocations of bread to children and pregnant women. Some analysts say conditions are worse than the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a time known as the Special Period. "I was a kid but I recall that during the Special Period we got a ration of bread daily. Every Cuban. Not this time," says Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist at American University in Washington, D.C. He says Cuba's problems, from food shortages to power outages, are the result of the country's massive financial deficit and lack of money to pay for imports. Dilapidated power plants have shut down and there's not enough fuel to power those still working. "Around 95% of Cuba's electricity is produced by power plants that burn oil. Fuel oil, diesel, even crude oil. So if you don't have the fuel, you cannot operate the plants," Torres says. In other words, he says, there's "no fuel, no electricity."

For more than two decades, Cuba relied on oil-rich Venezuela — a political ally — for crude and fuel in exchange for sending doctors and school teachers to the South American country. But as Venezuela's oil production plummeted in recent years, so did its generosity toward Cuba. Russia is now believed to be sending a large oil tanker to help the island amid the shortage, according to news reports citing a researcher at University of Texas who closely tracks shipping to Cuba. Cuba's president said in a statement his government will address protesters' concerns, but also denounced "enemies of the revolution" for trying to destabilize the country and accused the U.S. of stoking the protests. A spokesperson for the Cuban government blamed the economic crisis on decades-old U.S. sanctions that have complicated the island's purchase of fuel and food. That's partially true, says Johanna Cilano Pelaez, a researcher with Amnesty International. "But it's irresponsible to blame U.S. sanctions alone for the state of the Cuban economy," she says. For now, the Cuban government's response to the protests has been relatively subdued compared to 2021, when hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and some sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. While authorities have detained some protesters in recent days, they have also given out extra rice, milk and sugar in an effort to appease the growing outcry. In Santiago de Cuba, Claribel says Cubans' anger and frustration are beginning to outweigh their fear of government retaliation. "The people aren't going to back down," Claribel says. "If there hadn't been protests, we would still be without rice and chicken." When she heads out to demonstrate, she plans to bring her grandchildren. "They can't touch the children," she says.